From his harbormaster’s office, Neil Clarke can see every boat sailing into Penzance Harbor on Britain’s southwestern tip. “We’ve got a long coastline with a small amount of people trying to keep an eye on it,” Clarke said.
“Attacks like Mumbai do give us cause for concern.” More than three months after India’s Mumbai terror killings, overlapping government jurisdictions and a focus on airports and public transport have left weaknesses in Britain’s maritime security. With twice as much coastline as France, the U.K. is vulnerable to arms smuggling, say terrorism experts and the government’s own reports.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has yet to propose a strategy to oversee unofficial points of entry. He and predecessor Tony Blair gave precedence to tightening safety at main airports and transit networks after the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. and the 2005 bombings of London’s buses and Underground.
In the Nov. 26 attack on India, 10 terrorists sailed into Mumbai on a dinghy and killed 163 people in a coordinated assault. In the U.K., the concern is more that arms will be smuggled in through unprotected landing places.
“It is something we have to watch out for,” said Franz Lehr, professor at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland. “All copycats need are weapons. Getting hold of an assault rifle and learning to handle it with ease, that’s the hard part.”
War Support
The U.K. is a bigger target than its continental European allies because of its support for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, he said.
The Conservatives, leading opinion polls for a general election due by June 2010, says the government needs to do more given that London, which sits on the River Thames, is scheduled to host the 2012 Olympics.
“When you are aware you are not adequately protected or informed, and when you have taken measures to protect obvious points of entry, you shouldn’t be sitting on your bottom,” said Pauline Neville-Jones, Conservative spokeswoman on counterterrorism and a former chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee that oversees espionage.
The Conservatives say they want regional maritime police to be integrated into a national border force and all ports to have routine security inspections.
More Coastline
France has 3,427 miles (5,500 kilometers) of coast and Italy has 4,634 miles, while the U.K. has more than 11,000 miles.
The government should ensure that small boats entering territorial waters are tracked, and should also designate a lead department for maritime security, said Jason Alderwick, a maritime analyst at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The Defense, Home, Treasury and Transport ministries all play a role in maritime affairs. The Royal Navy, Revenue and Customs, the Serious Organized Crime Agency and local police have ships in British waters. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency coordinates volunteer-operated rescue boats, though it doesn’t have a crime-fighting mandate, unlike the U.S. Coast Guard.
Permanent customs cover on U.K. shores ended in 2003, when officers switched to mobile operations. In the 1980s, lighthouse- keepers were replaced by automated systems. Harbors are either owned privately, controlled by cities or run by a trust.
“Maritime security is certainly being looked at,” Alderwick said. “But are we doing it in an integrated manner? And who is taking the lead?”
Shadow Form
The Border Agency, set up in April 2008, combines departments to form a beefed-up presence at main ports and airports. It is operating in shadow form until Parliament passes legislation to create a single executive body. The agency says it has stopped 3,700 weapons from reaching Britain’s streets.
Border security “has considerably improved in recent years,” said Alex Carlile, the government’s independent reviewer of terror legislation, describing the policing of Britain’s shores as “a formidable task.”
In London, work is ongoing to protect the Thames, said Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative, adding that a review is under way to see if more needs to be done. He didn’t provide details.
“With the buildup to the Olympic Games in 2012, a great deal of work is taking place to protect London from any potential threats,” Johnson said in a statement.
The Houses of Parliament, banks and hotels line the Thames, which has been patrolled by the security services since 1991. That year, the Irish Republican Army launched a mortar attack on No. 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s residence.
Sea Arrivals
Still, there are indications maritime security elsewhere is leaky. The number of illegal immigrants coming into the U.K. through the Port of Calais in France doubled in two years to 3,300, Home Office figures show.
In 2007, a judge jailed eight members of a gang for trying to unload 6.5 million pounds ($9 million) of cocaine on a Welsh beach, on the U.K.’s western coast, saying the plot failed only because of bad weather and a problem with the vessel.
“Much of the coastline is accessible to small vessels, which can be sailed onto secluded spots to offload illicit commodities before heading to a harbor or marina to make their journey appear legitimate,” the Serious Organized Crime Agency said in a June 2008 report that outlines future threats.
Security Minister Alan West told lawmakers in October that officials have been trying since last summer to figure out how to monitor the millions of small-boat movements.
The western coastline is particularly vulnerable. The shores, studded with remote beaches and secluded coves, were used by smugglers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Harbormaster Clarke said that while mobile teams come around quite often, he misses the customs officers who used to be just across the road from his office. They could spot a suspicious boat by how it sat in the water, he said.
“It’s having the extra pairs of eyes and people who have experience and know what they are looking for,” he said. “I do feel that slacking the cover off too much is causing a weakness.”
Source: Bloomberg